Well it happened. After our last flight experience, my husband vowed he would never board an aircraft again with puking child but I convinced him that flying with a now 3 year old is very different than a 18 month old. I hoped I was right. The flight to and from Toronto was as blissful as it could be sitting beside your 3 and 5 year old could be for 5-6 hours. Here is what made our recent trip to Toronto memorable and really fun!
1. The plane ride did not suck. A lollypop & Starburst candies for take-off and landings and Playdoh, Uno, 12 different varieties of coloring books, 100 craysons and 74 markers and the iPad with a few episodes of PJ Masks was all it took to make me actually enjoy being strapped next to my children for 6 hours. No projectile vomitting from little brother also was win. When the plane landed, the passenger behind us remarked, "Wow, you kids were so good and so well behaved!" and Noah just beamed and said, "Yup! I didn't puke!"
2. Having a 'fun house' instead of a hotel room. This trip was part vacation but also a family reunion trip and my mom was able to find a 5 bedroom house so we could share the house with my parents and my aunt and uncle from Hong Kong. The kids refer to any place we rent a 'fun house' so it was so nice in not sleep in the same room as your kids, to have a kitchen to cook breakfast and a living room to sit and chat in the evenings. Natallie liked played Uno with Auntie Helen and Noah liked climbing on anyone who wanted to relax on the couch.
3. Famjam at LegoLand. We have never been to the 'real' Legoland in California (it's on the wish list!) and I think if we had been to Legoland than the Discovery Center would have felt a bit small but since we had nothing better to compare it to, it was a great glimpse of what Legoland would be like. The kids loved the ride where you got to shoot virtual bad guys with lasers, I don't know how the kids got more points than me. I swear my gun was not working....all 3 times we did this ride.
5. Getting in FREE to the Ontario Science Musuem. Another parent told me that our Science World membership gets your in free to Science Centers around the world and she was right! We showed our passes and saved $70 !! The kids area is amazing, the kids loved all the hands-on activities, we spent over 5 hours there and didn't get through each floor!
6. A surprise Easter egg hunt. We didn't know but the little Anglican church that my dad had found close to our Air B n B was hosting an Easter egg hunt after the service and the kids were stoked to be given large baskets and racing around to fill 'em up!
7. Spending Easter Sunday by the water. My Dad took us all to Bluffers Park in Scarborough. The kids loved jumping from rock to rock and Nallie even put her feet in the lake Ontario but decided it wasn't quite swimming weather yet. Noah even found $5 on the ground and bought us all ice cream. I asked the naiive question if we were going to walk around the whole lake and then realized just how HUGE Lake Ontario actually is. I guess it's been a few decades since my Canadian geography class.
8. A chauffeured ride to Niagara Falls! During our week in Toronto, my dad kindly offered to do all the driving. We rented a minivan and he would drop our family off at whatever attraction we wanted to go to and pick us up later in the day when it was time to have our family dinner with relatives. It was so nice (and a total marriage saver) that we did not have to drive or navigate the crazy 5 lane highways in Toronto. At the end of our trip, we booked 2 nights at Great Wolf Lodge and my Dad kindly drove an hour and half from Scarborough to drop us off at Niagara so we didn't have to take a taxi there. (Also, another positive note is that we found cheap $5 parking at Fallsview Casino Resort but on the down side, we promised the kids pizza for lunch not realizing that 2 slices of pizza there would cost over $16!)
9. Waterslides and the themed rooms at Great Wolf Lodge. It was our first exposure to the world of Great Wolf and wow - first thing when we walked in, the kids got their faces painted and were enamoured by the talking moose and animals in the lobby. We got the "Wolf Den" room and the kids howled happily in their bunk beds. The water park is so big that even our littlest wolf pup who wasn't tall enough for any of the double tube rides still had fun in the lazy river, the wave pool and jumping the lily pads. The kids loved the family tube ride, except it always seemed that one of the parents would end up going down backwards and needing Gravol after. Simon also discovered an adult-only hot tub and was able to recover from the queasiness in solitude.
10. Making memories as a family with more family. The whole reason for going to Ontario was for this family reunion and the trip was such a good mix of exploring the attractions of Ontario and enjoying time with my aunts and cousins. The kids bonded with their cousins quickly and it was really special since they have no cousins back home. By the end of the evening, the kids were all cuddled in the same bed begging for a sleepover. The kids also got to make some special memories with great grandma (great "PoPo") who will soon be 96 years old. Such a blessing to have 4 generations of women altogether! I don't know if we will be able to see my PoPo again so it was really meaningful to hold her hand and watch her interact with the kids. At 96 years old, she could still beat my kids at a game of Spot it!
It was 10 years ago when we last visited Toronto when my cousin got married, now that we know the kids are capable of not puking and playing nicely for 6 hours on a plane, I sure hope that we can come back before another decade passes!
Well done Nessy. I especially like the photo of 4 generations of women. You got lots of good shots. So glad you found time to write this. (or did you stay up way late?)
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